Donald Trump‘s presidential transition team is planning an immediate withdrawal from the World Health Organization, an expert familiar with the discussions has said.
The president-elect, 78, has repeatedly called the health body a puppet of Beijing for failing to hold China accountable for the early spread of Covid-19.
Members of Trump’s team have now told experts of their intention to withdraw from the WHO on January 20 – the first day of his second term.
‘I have it on good authority that he plans to withdraw, probably on Day One or very early in his administration,’ said Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health at Georgetown University in Washington and director of the WHO Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law.
The Financial Times was first to report on the plans, citing two experts. The second expert, former White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha, was not immediately available for comment.
A withdrawal from the WHO would mark a dramatic shift in US global health policy and further isolate Washington from international efforts to battle pandemics.
The departure would also deny the healthy body of its biggest donor with the US providing the WHO with about 16 per cent of its funding in 2022-23.
Trump initiated the year-long withdrawal process from the WHO in 2020 but six months later his successor, President Joe Biden, reversed the decision.